LIV GOLF 2024 Season Preview

LIV GOLF gears up for its third season this week and the “Golf, But Louder” tour looks set to be even louder in 2024.

An off-season of intrigue saw the best player in the world, Jon Rahm, sign on amid an extravaganza of hype and publicity. Joining Rahm as a teammate will be England’s Tyrell Hatton, one of the angriest, yet most likeable, pros in the game.

The all-Aussie Rippers, captained by Cam Smith, welcomes Victorian Lucas Herbert while 2022 Australian Open champion and 2023 DP World Tour Player of the Year Adrian Meronk has signed on for Martin Kaymer’s Cleeks. LIV’s 14 event schedule kicks off in Mexico on Friday, one of eight countries the tour will visit in 2024.

RAHM’S EXPANSION TEAM

Rahm’s LIV Letterman jacket was arguably the star of the show during his live sign-on announcement, prompting many discussions surrounding its provenance. But the other major questions emanating from Rahm’s signing were: who would join his team and what would it be called?

After weeks of suspense, Rahm announced he will captain the Legion XIII. The Spanish superstar drew inspiration from Roman Gladiators to convey a warrior spirit for his team, with the name based on the Legio XIII Gemina — an elite unit in Julius Caesar’s army. The XIII is also significant given Rahm’s squad becomes the 13 ^th team to join LIV.

Tyrrell Hatton will be wearing the Legion XIII uniform alongside Zimbabwe’s Kieran Vincent, who was one of three players to graduate from the LIV promotion event late last year. Caleb Surratt is the fourth member of Legion XIII, the former top amateur joining directly from the University of Tennessee.

LIV PLAYER MERRY-GO-ROUND

While Jon Rahm and his new Legion XIII expansion team have been the biggest off-season signings, there have been plenty of player transfers going on behind the scenes.

The most surprising is the move of Talor Gooch from Bubba Watson’s RangeGoats to Brooks Koepka’s Smash team. Gooch transfers after claiming last year’s LIV Individual Championship. The 32-year-old won three times in 2023 for the RangeGoats (Adelaide, Singapore, Andalucia) after being part of the title-winning 4Aces team in 2022. The Gooch trade saw Matthew Wolff shifting in the opposite direction, moving from Smash to the RangeGoats. It wasn’t entirely surprising given Smash captain Brooks Koepka had been extremely vocal in his criticism of Wolff’s work ethic last season.

Meanwhile, Gooch’s RangeGoat teammate Harold Varner III is also on the move. Varner will be playing for the 4Aces in 2024 after swapping with Peter Uihlein. Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell will also join Smash, moving from the Cleeks to take Chase Koepka’s place on the roster. And Carlos Ortiz and David Puig have interchanged, Puig joining the Fireballs and Ortiz heading to Torque GC.

THE NEW GUYS

Three-time DP World Tour winner Lucas Herbert will be a fresh face for the Ripper side this year, joining captain Cam Smith, Marc Leishman and Matt Jones. Poland’s Adrian Meronk also joins LIV in 2024. After being voted as the 2023 Player of the Year by his DP World Tour peers, Meronk will suit up for the Cleeks.

American Andy Ogletree returns to the LIV Tour after winning the Asian Tour’s International Series last year, booking his ticket to Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers. And joining Kieran Vincent in the big show via the promotion tournament are Japan’s Jinichiro Kozuma (Iron Heads) and Finland’s Kalle Samoja (Cleeks).

THE LIV GOLF FORMAT

Every LIV event starts Friday and finishes Sunday, with an individual and team winner determined after 54 holes of action. LIV tournaments feature shotgun starts, with all 13 teams out on the course at the same time. There is no cut. It condenses the action into a four-hour window and eliminates the bias that comes with afternoon and morning tee times in regular events.

LIV have introduced two individual wildcard spots for 2023, which means there will be a total of 54 players teeing it up in every tournament. The two wildcards (for Mayakoba it'll be Laurie Canter and Hudson Swafford) aren't part of a team but are eligible to earn individual prize money. Their season-long earnings will count towards the individual championship.

The teams component of LIV adds another dimension to every tournament. The team's leaderboard is based on the collective score of each team. Even if a player is out of contention in the individual tournament their score still counts towards the team tally, which makes every shot count. World ranking points still won’t be on offer for LIV events after golf’s governing bodies knocked back a request late last year.

LIV TOURNAMENT PURSES

Each LIV tournament offers a total purse of US$25 million, which includes $20 million for the individual tournament and $5 million for the team purse. 

The winning golfer earns $4 million while the top team gets to share another $3 million between the four players. Even the golfer who finishes last on the individual leaderboard earns well over $100,000. The winner of the individual championship at season’s end earns an $18 million bonus while the team championship awards a $14 million bonus to the winning team — to be shared four ways, of course. 

NEW LIV TOURNAMENTS

Six LIV tournaments – Mayakoba, Adelaide, Singapore, Andalucia, Greenbrier and Jeddah – will be joined by several new destinations in 2024.

LIV’s aim of taking golf to less populated markets sees new tournaments being played in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Houston, Nashville and Staffordshire, England, this year. LIV will head to Miami the week before the Masters. The host venue for the individual and team finales is yet to be announced.

2024 LIV SCHEDULE

1. LIV Mayakoba: February 2-4 (El Camaleon Golf Course, Mexico)
2. LIV Las Vegas: February 8-10 (Las Vegas Country Club, Nevada)
3. LIV Jeddah: March 1-3 (Royal Greens Golf and Country Club, Saudi Arabia)
4. LIV Hong Kong: March 8-10 (Hong Kong Golf Club, Hong Kong)
5. LIV Miami: April 5-7 (Trump National Doral, Florida)
6. LIV Adelaide: April 26-28 (The Grange Golf Club, Australia)
7. LIV Singapore: May 3-5 (Sentosa Golf Club, Singapore)
8. LIV Houston: June 7-9 (Golf Club of Houston, Texas)
9. LIV Nashville: June 21-23 (The Grove, Tennessee)
10. LIV Andalucia: July 12-14 (Real Club Valderrama, Spain)
11. LIV United Kingdom: July 26-28 (JCB Golf and Country Club, Staffordshire, UK)
12. LIV Greenbrier: August 16-18 (The Old White at Greenbrier, West Virginia)
13. LIV Individual Championship: TBC
14. LIV Team Championship: TBC

HOW TO WATCH LIV GOLF IN 2024

Australian golf fans can watch every LIV event live on free-to-air channel 7 and the 7+ app. In the US, LIV events are broadcast on the CW channel.

The LIV+ app and YouTube channel will also broadcast LIV tournaments to selected countries. LIV tournaments will also be shown on L’Equipe, SuperSport, DirecTV, K+, Servus TV, SPOTV and Claro.

LIV GOLF TEAMS

1. 4 ACES: Dustin Johnson (captain), Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, Harold Varner*
2. CLEEKS: Martin Kaymer (captain), Richard Bland, Kalle Samooja*, Adrian Meronk*
3. CRUSHERS: Bryson DeChambeau (captain), Paul Casey, Charles Howell III, Anirban Lahiri*
4. FIREBALLS: Sergio Garcia (captain), Abraham Ancer, Eugenio Chacarra, David Puig*
5. HYFLYERS: Phil Mickelson (captain), Cameron Tringale, Brendan Steele, Andy Ogletree*
6. IRON HEADS: Kevin Na (captain), Scott Vincent, Danny Lee, Jinichiro Kozuma*
7. LEGION XIII: Jon Rahm (captain), Tyrrell Hatton, Kieran Vincent, Caleb Surratt - NEW TEAM!
8. MAJESTICKS: Ian Poulter (co-captain), Henrik Stenson (co-captain), Lee Westwood (co-captain), Sam Horsfield
9. RANGEGOATS: Bubba Watson (captain), Thomas Pieters, Peter Uihlein*, Matthew Wolff*
10. RIPPER: Cameron Smith (captain), Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Lucas Herbert*
11. SMASH: Brooks Koepka (captain), Jason Kokrak, Graeme McDowell*, Talor Gooch*
12. STINGER: Louis Oosthuizen (captain), Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace, Dean Burmester
13. TORQUE: Joaquin Niemann (captain), Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz, Carlos Ortiz*

*New team members in 2024

WILDCARDS:

Hudson Swafford and Laurie Canter are the wildcards for LIV Mayakoba.

Written by Jamie Martin Jamie Martin is currently locked in a battle to keep his handicap hovering around the mid-single digits. Despite his obvious short-game shortcomings, Jamie enjoys playing and writing about every aspect of golf and is often seen making practice swings in a mirror.